Car Trouble!
February 11, 2009
There is possibly nothing quite like a mechanics sharp intake of breath to ruin a Monday afternoon. A Monday afternoon where you have already stood on a grassy verge off the M1 watching helplessly as 20tonne HG V’s motor toward your motionless car seemingly unaware of it’s stationary position on the inside lane. That breath, however, is small fry compared to the fear when your car flashes up ‘engine fault’ in orange as you are happily going on with your journey – the realisation that you need to get across to the other side of a busy motorway as your car is slowly grinding to a halt for no apparent reason…then the horror when you realise that the safety of the hard shoulder has been cruelly snatched away from you leaving you with very few options other than abandonment and hope.
The whole process of breaking down is incovenient to say the least. The cost, the feeling of helplessness, the waiting, the look of derision from the breakdown mechanic as he realises that you know nothing about the workings of the car you drive, the rain, the poor service station coffee and overpriced sandwiches.
I had actually set off in good time to reach my destination – a corporate dinner at a hotel which I was due to photograph – and was only 20minutes away when disaster struck. It took me 4hours…and that was only because of a friend helping me out and the fact I was willing to abandon my car at the services until I had the time to sort it out. So I arrived 2 hours late for the job flustered, annoyed and sincerely embarrassed and apologetic. Fortunately I was greeted with a sympathetic ear, a cup of coffee and an after dinner speech by none other than Roy Walker.
So all in all a pretty horrible day!
